Description |
This research focuses on the development of an autonomous robotic system using Robot Operating System (ROS), with the purpose of competing in the NASA Robotic Mining Competition in collaboration with the Utah Robotic Mining Project team. While completing this research, the following discoveries were made: accurate sensor data is imperative to functioning autonomous systems, LiDAR data can be used to augment other senor data inaccuracies, filtering algorithms cannot always compensate for highly inaccurate sensors, and the correct integration of sensors, control systems, and specific robot parameters into autonomous robotics frameworks is a key step to enabling autonomy in ROS. Autonomous robotics has the potential to be the largest leap in technology since the invention of the personal computer. Integrating autonomous robotic systems requires a realtime unified operating system. ROS is a catalyst in the development of fully autonomous robot applications. ROS is a open source robot software with a large community of developers and many resources available. ROS allows researchers to focus their time on implementing fully functioning autonomous systems on their robotic platform of choice instead of spending time developing functioning code bases. |